By Patrick Revere
The Holland Sentinel
The typical Western perception of India today is of sweeping seas of call centers. It is a perception that in recent years has replaced the one of enlightened yogis and swamis with spare cloth and frail smiles.
As is the case with many things in India these days, both perceptions are accurate.
During a recent month-long Rotary-sponsored tour of Uttar Pradesh, the country's most densely populated, undereducated and impoverished state, it became apparent that I was seeing a place in such a rapid state of flux that the slightest bit of inattention would become a failure to experience something never to be recovered.
Much of the south of India, particularly the cities of Mumbai and Bangalore, is heavily wired and laden with the newest technologies. But Uttar Pradesh, commonly called U.P., is in the northeast, where villagers still far outnumber tech workers. Heavy machinery buries fiber-optic lines alongside rutted highways. Old World laborers who use their hands to dry cow pies for fuel and pulverize brick for new construction share the same space.
Even in a state with such limited resources, the progress in 60 years since independence from Britain is widely visible. Progressive leaders -- both in politics and business -- strive to do away with the archaic caste system, which is outlawed but still practiced. They work to get millions of village children to school for at least a basic education.
There are women heads of state, including Mayawati Kumari, the verbose and controversial chief minister of U.P., who comes from a former "untouchable" family. Deepak Abash, a Varanasi-based designer of bank interiors, told me that elected and appointed government leaders represent all religious, socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds to achieve "unity through diversity."
"We want to prosper. This is the only way to do it," he told me as we forged through the chaotic streets of the world's oldest living city. "Hindus here have conflict with Muslims. If we wanted, we could crush them ... but that's not what this country wants."
Government corruption in India remains a major problem. Disease is rampant. Electricity is patchy at best. The middle class is growing, but the resources of the lower rungs of society are as spare as the supply of clean water.
I was sent to India, along with three other young professionals from Michigan and Ontario, by local Rotarians for a cultural exchange. What I learned is that when government fails, business-service organizations can step in. Rotary is in the final stages of a campaign to eradicate polio. The next project likely will expand clean, public water. We visited schools, medical clinics, farms, and training centers that teach people how to make carpets, jewelry and clothing -- all sponsored by Indian Rotarians.
Nearly everywhere we toured people questioned me about the stability of the U.S. economy. What's wrong? How is it going to turn around? How will it affect us? I explained what I could, with the admission that there are people much more able than I to address these issues.
But one thing was clear -- it's all about the will of the people. India and the United States are the world's largest democracies. We have the collective intellect and compassion to help each other achieve a common goal.
Will the United States still have the world's leading economy in 20 years? Maybe not. Will India? Maybe. Regardless, we can all learn and prosper, and ideally become more "united through diversity."
On the web
For a photo gallery of Patrick Revere's trip to India, go to spotted.hollandsentinel.com
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